#through development hell (like versus xiii to ffxv's ten years of development)

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I can't believe Final Fantasy XVI comes out in two days. Ahh!

[stephicness]

Just wanna say you're a wonderful person!

D’aw, Steggie…! lksjelkrs It’s so kind that you’re complimenting me, but I just way to try my best to be optimistic about the situation. c: Like, it’s weird to say since I’m only twenty-one (twenty-two tomorrow though! Yippee!), but I was one of those people who waited eagerly for FFXV since the first release trailer ten years ago. Despite me wanting to have the game with all of these expectations and promises I wanted them to keep, I’m quite content in what was given because they truly were ambitious in what they wanted to do.

Of course, I could always go for some more of that delightful commander in my life, but I’m pleased enough just seeing some other content ideas getting some love! :D

Final Fantasy XV truly is a great game, and one that tried to accomplish alot through its complications and the like. I mean, it was threatened to be canceled completely after Tetsuya Nomura was asked to leave the project due to his excessive work-load (and apparently because he wanted Versus XIII to be a musical?? Silly rumors~). So that’s why it was so rough when Tabata took over afterwards. He was given a brutal deadline to shape Nomura’s vision into something that wasn’t Nomura’s vision, and basically had to start with nothing more than the names of the four main characters.

But think about it: in four years, Square Enix was able to reshape the world of Final Fantasy XV, expanding it into something that new and old fans can really enjoy – bringing in faster combat systems that really flow together, and bringing in the potential to be able to explore now. To learn about the world through your own adventures and really making it a fun experience rather than being spoon-fed all this information with bad acting and a generally confusing plot that just seemed like it tried to much (I love you FFXIII! Honest to god, I do~). It was ambitious because the game had to be created from scratch not once, but twice in a row.

I don’t know about you, but world-building is hard to do. Even when you have all the time of the world, the world never does feel complete, you know? So the fact that Tabata and his team created this world, created these characters and their stories, generated a plot that was clear enough to hopefully achieved and keep interesting, and create assets that made this game unique over its predecessors – and not to mention made a game that didn’t ‘fail’ as much as FFXIII had supposedly had – that proved to be one hell of a challenge that Tabata and his team are still trying to resolve. It’s intense, and most companies would have just given up once the game was released. But Tabata and his team? They’re still trying. They were forced to put out the game for the sake of sales, and yet they’re still trying their best to make sure that this game is what the fan’s want, and is something the fans truly want to invest and become attached to.

And honestly, that’s super sweet and kind of Square Enix to do! And what’s more is that a good majority of this content – besides specific plans for the Episodes and the Comrades DLC (and a few others maybe) – is free to the players. They’re trying to patch-in more story cutscenes, like how they did with Verse 2 and discussing Ravus’s death. They’re trying to introduce play assets that will get players to keep coming back and play more – like the timed hunts and fixes to the Armigers and other features that they want to do. They’re trying so hard, and I think that’s really admirable in an industry where most companies seem to only value ways to make money over ways to make the artistic story more refined.

So yeah, I feel very positive and optimistic about what Square Enix is doing, and even though I see people’s disgruntled viewpoints, I hope that they can see the light of the situation. Square Enix is trying their best, and FOR SURE, a good majority of this content will come to light. But it takes time and support. Kinda like with fanfic writers and artists, you know? If you give them support, feedback, and positivity, they’ll keep trying their hardest to create lovely things and maintain their passion for their work! If you berate them and show hatred and loathing towards them, they’ll be more inclined to stop and lose track of their passion. You get what I mean, right?

So I remain positive, and I give Square Enix my loyal support in their hard work for the franchise! :D And I hope too that you guys will give your support too for the development team that gave us such a great game~

[cosmiciaria]

Final Fantasy XV [long] Review (minor spoilers!)

This is going to be my first review here on Tumblr, and I thought, why not start with something that’s still boiling out there? 

FFXV was many things for me. It was one of the three reasons why I bought a PS4 (the other two being Persona 5 and… eventually, KH3); it was, in fact, the first game I played on that console! I went from having a PS2 to a complete and brand new PS4, and it was all so overwhelming and beautiful for me, that I couldn't not feel amazed by everything.

Ok, so let's clear something out of the table: did I like FFXV? Yes! I thought it was a good game. Was it perfect? Hell no, I'm not blind, people! But, is there anything outside that it's perfect? *cof cof don't throw The Last of Us at me cof*

FFXV was highly expected by the audience, and after '10 years' of waiting, they were thirsty for something innovative, fresh, new, creative and mind blowing. What we did get, nonetheless, was a game that was worth only the four or three years in development that it actually had. The so called Final Fantasy Versus XIII never saw the light of day, much to many people's disgrace, and all those years that supposedly the game was being developed vanished entirely from the face of earth. What happened, we'll never truly know, and one can only speculate.

Me, personally, I wasn't interested in FFvXIII. It wasn't until this game was rebranded as FFXV that it caught my attention. And with each trailer, I grew more and more hyped. I started being a fan of Final Fantasy games in late 2014, when I was in my most stressed month of first year of college, and I needed something to clear my mind after hours of studying. Final Fantasy games showed me that videogames can have plot!, can have good characters!, can have good plot twists!, can rip your heart out and twist it in their hands and then give it back to you all broken and shattered! So, of course I was going to be hyped for this game: it had a prince, it had four handsome characters, it had an awesome car, it had magic and it had crystals. A complete score for me.

FFXV, for those who haven't played it, is about the heir of the Kingdom of Lucis: Noctis. Noctis isn't your average prince: he's more the lazy kind of royalty child. And no, he's not emo. Yes, he likes his hair like that. Yes, he can see through it. Stop considering him as an emo. Play the game, you'll learn why. Anyway, Noctis's kingdom is in turmoil and fighting against the Niffleheim Empire, a technologically advanced country that's using the power of Magitek Troopers to submit as much as Lucis's territories as it can. Only Insomnia, the Crown City capital, remains safe behind its magical walls.

The political truce comes by the hand of Niffleheim chancellor Ardyn Izunia, a very funny character (and funny here meaning strange – oh I'm beginning to sound like Lemony Snicket) who's obviously up to no good. He proposes the marriage between Noctis, the prince of Lucis, and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the Oracle of Tenebrae. This is kind of ironic here, because Luna and Noctis knew each other from when they were children, but that's another story. Go watch the anime Brotherhood.

The kingdom of Lucis accepts this truce, albeit with suspicious eyes. Noctis, unaware of his father's true plans, is sent on a trip with his boyfriends – I mean, best friends, to Altissia, the city in which he's gonna marry Luna. He's happy, though. So happy that he even jokes about it to his father.

The moment he leaves Insomnia, all hell breaks loose. His city is attacked, destroyed, massacred, and many other synonyms, and his father dies in battle. The truce was no truce at all, the marriage was a façade, and the whole purpose was to wipe the Lucis Caelum dynasty from the face of Eos. Noctis, with the help of his bros, has to reclaim back his throne (huh, ring a bell? Back cover of the game? No?), by requesting the help of the Six Astrals (a.k.a. gods, a.k.a. gameplay wise, summons) and by seeking the Royal Arms, weapons wielded by Lucis Kings of old, his forebears.

So that's the set up. You start here, and everything goes downhill.

I'm going with the bad news first: what did FFXV do wrong – so wrong that it makes you wanna throw the game and ask yourself 'why did I buy this! This is no FF at all!'?

The FIRST thing this game did wrong was to be rushed. Yes. People are still saying that this game was ten years in development: guess what, it wasn't! Until Tabata relieved Nomura as director, the game was going nowhere. They had little time to create something worth the wait of ten years, and, inevitably, things were going to get crazy for these people working under pressure. I DID feel the game was rushed in the last chapters after leaving Altissia. The chapters that occur on the train feel like a plot device: we're moving, but there's nowhere to go, but the plot goes on, and so you gotta go on too, go with the flow, don't ask questions, just go there, do the thing, come back here, sit down, keep doing it. In one moment, after losing Prompto to that fall and witnessing the demise of Tenebrae (well, 'witness', we arrived just after the attack), I was just sitting there, watching Noctis and Ignis having a conversation and asking myself 'why the hell are we here, where are we heading'. MANY things happen off screen, and it gets on my nerves every time I think about it: the transformation of emperor into Foras, a demon that hunts you down during Chapter 13; the betrayal of Ravus Nox Fleuret; whatever happened to Verstael (is that man still alive? I guess we won't know until Episode Prompto DLC). We also don't get to see the content of Kingsglaive movie and the anime Brotherhood in the actual game, so if you were expecting some kind of backstory for each character, sorry to disappoint you, you gotta watch 'em all.

Actually, I do wanna do a sidenote here: the anime is pretty good. It's short: only an hour long, and it provides you with a lot of info you'll be glad to have. Also, it makes you like the characters even more. Yes, the content should've been there in the game SOMEWHERE (we don't ask for much), but still, it's worth your time. Kingsglaive, on the other hand… yes, it provides with crucial information for the start of the game that you SHOULD know, but that's only some minutes in the movie. The rest is just Nyx's story, and we're not really here for Nyx, are we?

At any rate, the second thing people are complaining more about is the cut content. There are lands and lands and lands AND LANDS of explorable places in the game that you CAN'T reach. They're there, they were supposed to serve some purpose, but you can't touch them. Shuuu. Also, prior to the game, many trailers were released and many scenes shown there didn't make it to the final product. Where is Luna's backstory? Where is that kid Noctis and king Regis scene from the Dawn Trailer? Nope, not for you! Sorry to disappoint ya!

That doesn't bother me too much. I don't pretty much look at the cut content: it's not in the game, it shouldn't be taken into account while reviewing it. But it's there, I guess.

What it actually bothers me a lot, is that you can't control your whole party. You only control Noctis. And that's fine, when you haven't played Final Fantasy Type 0, which was directed by the same man here. And in FF T0 you can control and SWITCH between 14 characters. All the time. Whenever you want. Always. And you're left wondering how the hell was that possible in a PSP game, but not in a PS4 game. I wonder.

The third thing I personally hate about this game, is Luna. Really. She's such a wasted potential that makes me wanna hit something. Period. I shipped Noctis more with the car than with her (joking, actually I ship Noct with Iris, but that's just me).

ALRIGHT, let's go with the good news now! Hell, how did you manage to like the game after all this that you've mentioned?

Like? Like? I LOVED the game!

Bear with me a little longer.

Yes, the game it's flawed in more ways that should've been allowed. But it also does many things well. Very well. The core of the game is on its gameplay: addictive, fun, not so strategic at the beginning, but still worth it. I spent hours killing fiends just to feel the enjoyment of smashing that sword and warping around with the prince of pain! The game has many optional dungeons, and some of them are nightmares made flesh, and if you want even a harder challenge, you have the dungeons inside of the dungeons, which are even more nightmarish! There are optional bosses here and there. It'll take some time before you run out of things to kill in the game. And even then, you can try your platforming skills in the Pitioss Dungeon, although I'd advise you to take it easy, because you're gonna have a bad time. Trust me, I'm an enginstudent of law.

Alright, you don't like the gameplay? Still, there are plenty of things to enjoy. The visuals in the game are awestriking. I used to hate driving in the car, but now, I enjoy the view and I listen to the music of older FF's, because everything there is worth seeing. The amount of details put into the game is amazing: how things get wet when it rains, even the car's glass gets pixelated with drops; how Noctis and the others interact with the environment; how the AI is programmed to make them react to different things in different ways. Even when Ignis, while driving, takes his Ebony coffee, the can doesn't disappear into thin air, but it's instead placed in a coaster in the car. It's a tiny thing, but it's there, people worked on it and it deserves praise!!

Fine, fine, you're not looking for details. Ok. Then you gotta love the characters. The way they interect with each other. Yes, we didn't have backstory for any of them. We don't know where Prompto comes from, or what Gladiolus wants, or why Iginis is likes he is. But, who cares. The time you spend with your bros is where the real trip is. No wonder Tabata said he wanted to make the 'roadtrip with friends' the main idea of the game. You grow fond of them without even noticing it, you start caring for them, even more when bad things start happening to them! Oh, my god, could SOMEONE hug PROMPTO, FOR F*CK'S SAKE HE NEEDS A HUG RIGHT NOW!!

And it's not just the main characters: Aranea Highwind is such a good asset in your party, that people even found the way to force her permanently in your team! (although they say new patches have removed this glitch – unfortunately) Iris Amicitia, Gladio's sister, is also a good change of pace for the male party members. And, hey, what about the main villain? Ardyn Izunia may very well be one of the best antagonists ON EARTH. I just love him so much, him and his plans and his voice actor.

OKAY, you don't like any of this! What about the music? It's gorgeous, it makes you tear up and have goosebumps. I cry myself to sleep with the soundtrack!

Music either…? Alright, alright. Maybe the ending of the game will compensate for something. No? Fine… maybe, just MAYBE FFXV isn't for you. And I'm not judging you!! Between us, my favorite FF is FFX.

Anyway, yes! I loved the game! And I cried a thousand rivers! And I started a new game + right after finishing it while still having tears in my eyes! Because this game, flawed though it is, means a lot to me. Really. It has given me many laughs, many cries, and it has made me feel real friendship. It's been a long time since I don't feel something real coming from a story, but this game has made it.

At the end of the day, this is the story of four friends: Noct, Iggy, Prom and Gladio. It doesn't matter the future of the kingdom. It doesn't matter how this war is going to end. What's important is the time you spend together with them. And how they, slowly but steadily, make their way into the player's heart.

So now, I do have a soft spot for this game in my heart. Although I know it's not perfect, it makes me glad to see how many people out there are still supporting it, and how the development team 'keeps on keeping on, the only way they know how'.

If you ever liked a Final Fantasy game… please, just give it a shot. If not, you can come to me and complain all you want, but don't miss the chance of playing this awesome game.

My final verdict, is an 8 out of 10. Could've been better, but still worth it. Really worth it.